Nate's life is school, the youth center, home, rinse and repeat. He's just trying to get by and keep his head down. At home he shares a room with his twin three year old brothers, because his dad Dec needs Nate’s room for his horticultural business. Nate’s step mum Nance is barely older than Nate and she’s been systematically cut off from the world through Dec’s control and refusal to parent in any way.

School feels like a halfway home on the journey to adulthood. A situation not helped by Nate’s mysteriously burnt out English teacher who seems determined to inspire the kids through the power of words. To cap it all Nate’s just discovered the youth center is facing closure and there’s little the kids who need it most can do.

Nate’s got plenty of ideas; his notebooks are full of writing, but Nate has no power and hence no hope. The one day someone sprays the youth center wall with poetry stolen from Nate’s journal and he starts to realise he might have something to contribute after all.